TUSCALOOSA -- If Kerry Murphy now was to encounter Kerry Murphy of three years ago, the meeting wouldn't involve much conversation

"I'd probably hit him in the face," Murphy said.

Why?

"Because he wasn't doing what he's doing now."

Murphy will be a sophomore nose tackle for Alabama's football team in 2010. It's a year that holds opportunity and growing promise for a former five-star prospect at Hoover High School who spent his first college season under an All-American.

Now that Terrence Cody is gone, Murphy will vie in spring practice to replace him. Teammates have seen enough of Murphy so far to expect that.

"Kerry is a good player," defensive end Damion Square said, "and Kerry is going to be big in our scheme next year."

"Even though he didn't play as much this year," linebacker Dont'a Hightower said. "I look for him to be one of those players to come in next year and play a lot."

There is something different about Murphy, be it his situation, his outgoing nature, his sense of humor or his background. For instance, this past season may have been Murphy's first with the Crimson Tide, but he wasn't a normal freshman.

His circuitous path leaves him a rare category. Not that it was seriously considered, but since Murphy is three years removed from high school, he could have turned professional after this past season like linebacker Rolando McClain, who was in Murphy's first Alabama signing class in 2007.

But there was ultimately another signing class for Murphy in 2008, and then another in 2009. Murphy's struggles with academics were well-known, so much that after two years, many began to wonder if he'd ever make it to UA.

Meanwhile, he went about trying to jump through all the hoops, assuring UA coaches all the while that he'd make it.

"You just want to be looked at the same," Murphy said. "But it's not because of how people would look at me. It's because of how I would look at myself if I gave up on something that I really wanted to do."

Murphy's situation was complicated. Back in 2007, he was included as part of an investigation into grade tampering at Hoover. It's unclear how that situation may have hindered Murphy's status, but by the time Hoover's report was released, Murphy had failed to qualify anyway.

He wound up at Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia. After a year spent playing left tackle - the prep school team had only two offensive linemen and needed him to switch - he still didn't make it academically. Another semester of classes, close to Birmingham and away from football, finally did the trick.

It wasn't until Jan. 2009 - two entire seasons removed from his final game at Hoover -- that Murphy was finally cleared to enroll at UA and join its football team.

"A lot of people would have quit if they were in my situation," Murphy said. "I just kept working for it. This is what I have to do. I was going to be the first person in my family to come play football somewhere in a college. .. Anything that doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I mean, I'm here. I'm here for good. I'm here to stay."

Murphy calls his time in college a "blessing," and says he now loves Alabama so much that he has gotten his mother - an Auburn fan - to convert. Murphy almost didn't sign with Alabama out of high school, and the main reason he said he did was because of Nick Saban's hire.

Had Saban not left the NFL, "I probably would have been at Miami," Murphy said.

In any event, Alabama fans were ecstatic when Murphy did initially commit. No one doubted his ability. Murphy had barrels of it, being that he's a 6-foot-4, 323-pound player who can perform a back-flip.

"He's good, now. He's real good," said Josh Chapman, a current UA player and former teammate of Murphy's at Hoover.

"Every time I step on the field or watch film the next day, man, I see something about Kerry that I really don't see in too many other guys that I really don't think he knows that he can do," Square said.

As for the other stuff, Murphy will insist he has changed, that he's taking his future more seriously and he's committed to it on and off the field.

He'll also say there is another reason, far more tragic, behind the transformation. As much of a struggle as it was for Murphy to actually make it to UA, these past months have proved to be tougher.

On the morning of Aug. 6 last year, Murphy's 22-year-old brother Terrory was found dead in Bessemer from a single gunshot wound. Police later said that he was fatally shot during a robbery attempt.

It was stunningly tragic news for Murphy, who was about to begin preseason practice at Alabama. Terrory worked as a grocery stocker and was soon headed to college. He was probably Kerry's closest friend. "Every weekend," no matter where he was, Kerry would wish to travel back to the Birmingham area and stay with his brother.

"It's still hard of hard for my family," Murphy said, "during the holidays and just when I go back home. ... It's gotten a lot better. It's brought the family a lot closer. All we have is each other, but my brother was my boy, you know."

After it happened, Murphy left Alabama's team for a short time before returning. It put him behind in preseason workouts with the Crimson Tide. At the time, he didn't care.

"Around the time it happened, I wasn't worried about anything except for just being with my family," he said. "But once I got back and got into the groove of things, that's when I think I really changed my life around and took everything a little bit more seriously. This stuff is for my family now. My brother, he was the one that anchored the family.

"When everything was going bad or something, he'd come around and do whatever he could. He was always a jokester, making people laugh and stuff. But now that he's gone, I have to step up and do things for my family."

A measure of closure came in that four people - Terrell French, 25; Meoshia Daniel, 26; Joe Reid, 28 and Monica Sims, 27 - were each arrested on two counts of capital murder charges stemming from Terrory's shooting. Multiple counts are because police concluded that Terrory was shot in his vehicle during the course of a robbery.

Each of the four currently remains in jail without bond. French and Daniel face arraignments March 26, according to the Bessemer Circuit Court, and Reid and Sims are set for arraignments April 9.

Meanwhile, others around the Crimson Tide agree that Murphy has since been different - in a good way.

"He's grown a lot," Crimson Tide defensive line coach Bo Davis said. "You can see there's a change in him. Things that he used to take for granted he doesn't take for granted anymore."

"I've seen a different Kerry Murphy now-a-days," Chapman said. "I mean, his work ethic has amazed me. He's got a little extra kick in him now. I feel that he kind of knows what he has to do. ... Ever since his brother died, I feel that he's been pushing on. He's pushing for playing time, really."

Though he played sparingly in 2009, he'll have a chance to compete with Chapman and others for Cody's spot. That starts this spring, and if not nose tackle, "Kerry can play pretty much wherever he feels like he can," according to Davis.

"I basically train guys where they can play anywhere, not just nose," said Davis, who added of Murphy, "He's done a great job. Kerry has worked hard to try to get to where he is. The thing about it is he's steadily getting better. I'm real proud of him for what he's accomplished so far, and I think if he'll just continue working, he's going to be fine."

And maybe Murphy's fortune is starting to turn.

In 2008, he watched Alabama win its first 12 games and now remembers the disappointment of not being a part of a potential title team. But it turns out he was just in time. A year later, Murphy celebrated with teammates in the Rose Bowl after the Crimson Tide won the national championship.

"So many people would just die to be in my shoes," he said. "I'm here. I'm here on the team. It's big to say. ... I think I've learned a lot, and I'll be ready for next year."